CSGO has been one of esport's gaming giants for the longest time, being among the most popularly played games at the highest level next to other legendary titles such as League of Legends, Team Fortress, Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch, and a whole slew of racing monsters. With much of the CSGO (and now Counter-Strike 2) player base sitting at around Master Guardian rank, many players aren't as interested in grinding the rank ladder as they may be in participating at official tournaments, especially those with enticing cash prizes.
While a large majority of the populous sits at around the same rank, there are definite outliers among them who are eager to strut their skills in tournament settings that highly benefit those who are outstanding at the game. Among this specific subset of players however, many are most likely unsure how to get into the tournament scene, where to start a tournament community themselves, or how to start participating in high-profile events. Below, Shockbyte will fill you in!
CSGO Esports Popularity History
On CSGO's initial release, the game was actually met with initial backlash for bugs, gameplay imbalance, and dislike for the changing systems from the age-old community of Counter-Strike: Source. Once Valve doubled-down, released massive changes, upgrades, and sponsored the very first Major tournament sprint at Dreamhack in 2013, the game had already begun to leave permanently lasting impacts on Esports as a whole. With only two years separating this moment from the next, entire Esports unions began to form, solidifying CSGO more than ever.
These "Esports unions" heightened the professionalism of Esports and CSGO as a whole, promising some of the most well known Esports teams (FaZe, Team Liquid, Virtus.pro and more) to only participate in tournaments with prize pools of $75,000 or more. With high-level gaming having such popularity, CSGO was able to sell over 25 Million copies by 2014, and has even modernly continues to break records such as the newest concurrent player-count of 1.3 Million.
Starting a CSGO Tournament Community
Starting communities can be difficult, but fortunately when people are interested in your cause, things become much easier very quickly. Reaching out to communities online can be a daunting task as well, but finding groups of players eager to participate in tournaments specifically will absolutely be a much easier task than expected. One great place to start tournaments of your own or to provide your tournament online reception, is EsCharts.
EsCharts is one of many incredible online tournament trackers, which can bring attention to your tournament from Esports enthusiasts all around the world, as well as provides live coverage of your platform on their website for anyone who stumbles upon your event. If you're looking to get started with a community of your own, you'll want an official website for your team to gather, view tournament details, and a dedicated server host to host each match...like Shockbyte!
Everything you Need - CSGO Tournament Hosts
Being the host of a tournament takes a lot of courage and interest in the Esport, but is also beyond rewarding. The age-old saying, "If you want it done right, do it yourself," absolutely applies in life and many players may find themselves enjoying the tournament more often if they were also the one running it. There are however many tools that a tournament host will require to create a successful CSGO tournament for the public, such as DDOS protection, a bracket creator, and more.
Using a reliable server hosting service such as Shockbyte will allow Tournament hosts to decide their server location AND provide irreplaceable DDOS protection for the players. Hosts can also use flexible platforms such as Challonge to create brackets, gather communities, and organize the tournament into a single coherent event. Discord communities in addition to the above tools create an overwhelmingly positive atmosphere of capability, structure, and hype surrounding the event as it approaches it's high-level gameplay.
Getting Involved Online - CSGO/CS2 Tournaments
If you're a Master Guardian rank player who's done with the grind of the ranked leaderboards; Counter-Strike 2's Premier Mode may provide something fresh to experience but will still feel like that same ranked mode you're used to. Players looking to get into the online competitive scene have several options: from reaching out to CSGO hosts posting about active communities on their local subreddits, to applying to participate on Esports teams that interest them!
University students are especially fortunate as many colleges have on-campus functions to facilitate young Esports talents into the gaming field of their choice or to connect them with applicable tournaments at minimum. Many universities also establish regular on-campus competitions and team formations to move into higher brackets at local conventions such as Insomnia, Pax, and other major gaming events around the world. If you're looking to get involved with a tournament community of your own, start up a CSGO server and get connected with us!
Looking for more FPS News?
- CS2 and CSGO Ranks; How to Climb
- Rust Helicopter and Air Update
- Ark: Survival Ascended, Release Date & Price Changes
About Shockbyte
Shockbyte is a game server host for CSGO, CS:Source, CS:2, and more.
Do you want to start your own Counter-Strike server? Click here to view our Counter-Strike server hosting plans.
